Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Sanford, ME

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Sanford 2 NNW, ME, 3 miles northwest of Sanford at 289 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 81°F and low of 56°F; January is the coolest, at 32°F and 10°F. October is the wettest at 5.4 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.6 inches; the year adds up to 51.4 inches over 85 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 51% of the year's precipitation (26.2 of 51.4 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 37 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (16); a normal September there has highs of 73°F and 3.8 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 10 days a year, almost all from June to August. Lows fall below freezing on about 156 nights a year. That 51.4 inches is more than at 42 of the 47 Maine stations used on this site (89%). North Berwick, 7 miles south, has its own station (Rochester Skyhaven Airport, NH): 41.2 inches a year, 10.2 less than here, and a July average high of 82°F against 81°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Seavey Island, ME, 24 miles south, averaged 64°F in August and 37°F in February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Seavey Island tide gauge, 24 miles from Sanford, has risen 0.87 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1926 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 48 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 78 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Sanford: 61 thunderstorm wind reports, 12 floods, 4 lightning strikes and 1 flash flood. They killed 3 people and injured 7, and the NWS estimated $25.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on July 14, 2020.

Flood insurance policyholders in Sanford's ZIP code 04073 have filed 32 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $404,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2010, with 12. 22% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 61 Maine cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 36 have fewer than Sanford.